If you somehow haven’t heard about Chat GPT in the past several weeks, take a moment to get caught up. If you don’t even have the time for that, take our word for it. The future is here. Technology has taken a huge leap.
Chat GPT is the AI-driven chat bot the abilities of which are breathtaking. More importantly, it’s a stark example of what it looks like when technology takes a significant step forward. Already, the Internet has exploded with discussion about how businesses can best employ Chat GPT in their own day-to-day operations. And the other big question? What’s coming next?
Chat GPT is a fantastic reminder that innovation—be it in the form of technology or ideas—doesn’t wait for anyone. History barely remembers the holdouts to innovation throughout the years, such as to the adoption of email, smart phones, the Internet, cars….possibly even wheels or sliced bread. And yet, we still see businesses across the title and real estate industry that prefer to do things the way they do because “that’s the way they’ve always done it.” These are the firms that decide new technology is too expensive, or that prefer to communicate with partners and clients the old fashioned ways. That may work for some folks in some situations. But the tide is turning.
Today, lenders are increasingly seeking partners who can help them with RON and digital closing technology. Those capabilities won’t be a “nice-to-have” much longer. Title agencies that aren’t capable of handling a lender’s RON requests will likely pay the price. Now’s the time to partner with a RON-capable firm if you’re not planning to adopt the technology yourself.
REALTORS, borrowers and even sellers are increasingly coming to expect—not just hope for—streamlined and efficient interactions with title companies and closers. Not voice mail tag. Not endless email threads. Modern communications via text and technology on their terms when they want the information. Down the road, this may become a deal breaker as lenders and REALTORS find that “traditional” settlement firms don’t fit their updated models.
The days of ferocious competition between title agencies, and a lack of cooperation, are also slowly fading. Today, the most successful title agents are partnering, collaborating and sharing resources for mutual benefit. In a competitive purchase market where variable costs are the name of the game; the most successful firms will be combining resources to earn their share of the market.
It’s still to be determined what impact Chat GPT will, in and of itself, have on title agents and the greater mortgage and real estate industry. It may go the way of the Beta VCR or Blackberry phone for all we know. But it’s another of history’s reminders that progress waits for no one. And challenging markets always bring about innovation. So whether that’s a modern approach to doing business or the use of new technology, it will be the businesses that heed that warning and ask themselves, earnestly, “what can we do better?” who will come through a challenging market cycle successfully.
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